Master List - All Wars

[David Cochrane]

With the Brigade/Divisional list for WWI almost complete along with WWII, I have prepared a single master list of all VCs from the Crimea to the present. Again, units are the big snag, especially Artillery/Engineers etc. It's sometimes difficult to find anything beyond "Royal Artillery" or "Royal Engineers" for some of the nineteenth-century recipients. In other cases it's just finding the proper abbreviations for certain obscure colonial units.

Again, to allow the many people with more knowledge than I about such things to provide some much-needed (and appreciated!) input, I have here the list as I have so far completed it, including locations for each action (so that the different colonial wars can be separated from each other, as well as the different campaigns of the World Wars).

(Sorry about the original attached file - screwed up the formatting so re-made it properly!)

Attachments:

[anthony]

Congratulations again on a great piece of work.

The BBC response to my feedback that they should not have included the ‘Victoria Cross for Australia’ (VCFA) and ‘Victoria Cross for New Zealand’ awards in the total number of ‘Victoria Cross’ (VC) awards was that they got their figures from the British Ministry of Defence!

I have put together some thoughts on the matter.

Australia has been de jure independent since signing the Statue of Westminster 1942 but has been de facto independent since Federation in 1901. The Queen has been styled Queen of Australia since 1952 and under this title approves VCFA awards. Following the UK New Year Honours List in 1990 which contained no Australian nominations for British honours, the Queen's Private Secretary, Sir William Heseltine, wrote to the Governor-General that ‘this seems a good moment to consider whether the time has not arrived for Australia, like Canada, to honour its citizens exclusively within its own system’. There followed more than two years of negotiations with Australian state governments before the Australian Prime Minister made the announcement on 5 October 1992 that Australia would make no further recommendations for British honours. See ’A matter of honour: the report of the review of Australian honours and awards’, December 1995, pp. 21-22. The Australian Order of Wear now states that ‘all imperial British awards made to Australian citizens after 5 October 1992 are foreign awards and should be worn accordingly’.

Awards are governed by warrants and thinking of the separate VC awards of Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand as the same award is as silly as the suggestion that the VC and George Cross are equivalent awards. This situation is similar to many but not all British general officers in both world wars who did not appreciate that Australian forces were not part of the British Army but were an independent force. On the other hand, Churchill in the multi volume Second World War documents his attempts to convince the Australians not to withdraw from Tobruk and later to reinforce Burma. Although Churchill was tenacious in his advocacy and did not like the final Australian decisions he clearly understood and treated Australia as independent and accepted that it was Australia’s right to make it own decision. Today, Australia has its own honours system with it premier award inspired by the VC but the Australian award is a unique and separate award from the original VC.

It is wonderful that the VCFA is from the same metal as the Victoria Cross but I really like the Canadian idea of adding the Fleur-de-lis at either end of the scroll bearing the motto to accompany the traditional rose, thistle, and shamrock. For Australia I would suggest our national floral emblem the Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha).

[anthony]

First World War. All VCs for the Palestine campaign were awarded for actions in the then area of Palestine. No VCs were awarded for actions in Egypt although three or four citations or the 31 March 1919 gazette list Egypt as the place of action. No VCs were awarded for actions in Syria.

[David Cochrane]

Have just been informed that the list isn't being very cooperative - here it is again, after a stern talking-to (and a few revisions!).

Attachments:

[Les]

Nice one, cheers David.

[David Cochrane]

Here's an updated master list; it now includes Indian PVCs, recipients' ages at the time of their actions, more detail about the locations, times between action & announcement, lifespan and if the award was made under Rules 7 or 13.

There's also a nationality column which is incomplete, as well as a rank sorter column which is also incomplete. Instances where I was not certain of the unit, or the correct abbreviation for the unit, have been marked in bold.

Also included on separate pages are charts illustrating the numbers of VCs over the years (acts & Gazettes), as well as the number of living VCs.

Please feel free to point out any areas for improvement.

VCs All Wars.xls (860 KB)

[anthony]

I really like your work on PVCs but I would prefer awards of the Australians Honours system to be respected and listed separately so as not to be confused with a similarly named British award which since 1982 is a foreign award in Australia. There is more to honours system than just their highest awards and whatever superficial similarly between the name of Australia’s and Britain’s highest awards there is no similarity between the second highest awards in which the British award has only been awarded to military for nearly forty years and the Australia awards has only been awarded to civilians.